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Halkirk couple celebrates 70 years together

Their marriage predates the United Nations, The Ed Sullivan Show and the Cold War, and after 70 years it’s still going strong.
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L: Bill and May Jamieson are pictured at their home in Points West Living on Friday

Their marriage predates the United Nations, The Ed Sullivan Show and the Cold War, and after 70 years it’s still going strong.

Bill and May Jamieson celebrated their 70th wedding anniversary on Monday, Jan. 12, and later in the week, friends, neighbours and staff at Points West Living surprised them with a cake and a small party.

“I didn’t know they were going to make a cake, but they made a fancy cake for us,” Bill said, speaking at their home later that week.

Bill, 98, and May, 93, have been living in Stettler since July 2013, but for most of their married life, they lived on a farm in the Halkirk area.

May’s family, the Doans, arrived in the Halkirk area in 1881 as homesteaders near the Battle River. She was born in 1921 into a family that grew to include 11 children.

Bill Jamieson was born in Scotland in 1916 and immigrated here with his parents and five siblings in 1925.

He recalled meeting his future wife at a school picnic, describing how she arrived with her parents in a horse-drawn “democrat buggy.”

“We went together for five years before we got married,” Bill added. The couple was married on Jan. 12, 1945.

Bill had worked as a farm labourer and spent several years on the rodeo circuit. After their marriage, he went to work at one of the coal mines near Halkirk, shortly before it was taken over by Mannix. He would remain with the company until his retirement in 1981.

The Jamiesons raised seven children — Doan, Geraldine, Maxine, Sheryl, Elaine, Melanie and Lyle — and now have a total of 14 grandchildren and 28 great-grandchildren.

Ever the “eager beaver,” in his words, Bill also maintained a sideline over the years, raising racehorses. Decades later he still has an album filled with photographs of the horses, which raced at tracks in Alberta and Washington.

Bill and May spent lots of time travelling together all over North America after his retirement, for which he is still thankful.

“We’ve had a good life, a real good life together,” he said. “We’ve had a pretty active life . . . There’s been a lot of changes in the country since I came, and they’re still changing.”

May’s health has deteriorated in recent years; she was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, and they moved into Points West shortly after it opened in July 2013.

“We’re together here,” said Bill. “We’re living together yet and that’s the main thing.”